Prime the Pump, Baby!

No, I am not talking about primes in mathematics, or primes in fencing; I am talking about primes as a verb. What I am talking about are primes that are the necessary ingredients for clarity in action.

Does your office or home look like this? Or does it look like this? This photo is of Emily Schwarting’s fourth workspace. I don’t know Emily, but I sure like what she’s done with the place!

I want you to take a look at the first picture. Now picture yourself living in that environment? What does it feel like to you? What sort of energy would you have to meet your day? Are you already tired just looking at it?

What about the next picture? If you saw that everyday, how would that make you feel? My guess is that one of these pictures energizes, while the other is a black hole sucking the life out of you!

I used to think clutter in my visual field was no big deal. I liked it that way. It was comfortable, but little did I know that the clutter was ripping me off! It was stealing from me my energy to create, and to live the life that I wanted in exchange for comfort. What is your environment doing to you?

The energy to take action, to go after your latest project, or to take better care of yourself and those you care about can come from many sources. I never knew it could also come from your physical environment! The more space you create in your life, the more opportunities you have to say yes. If you don’t have the energy, or the time for the opportunity, you are going to let it slide by.

So, I want to challenge you to an experiment about priming your environment. Do you want to stop watching so much TV? Hide the batteries to the remote, and then see how long it takes you to figure out what a major pain it is to get the batteries for the remote every single time you want to watch TV. Hint: The more difficult you make a task, the less likely you are going to want to do it. The converse is also true! The easier you make the task, e.g., having nutritious meals and snacks already prepared, makes it more likely you are going to eat better, and more likely that you will WANT to take that action.

What could you do in your environment that would make you more likely to take the actions you want to take, and have the energy to do it? Try it out for yourself. Prime that pump, Baby! What do you have to lose? Except maybe some saboteurs that are stealing your energy without you even knowing it.